the vs whatever

the

adv
  • With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none. 

  • With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives. 

article
  • Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. 

  • Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. 

  • Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. 

  • Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. 

  • Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. 

  • When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. 

  • Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it hints at is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already completely specified. 

  • Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. 

  • Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. 

  • Used before a superlative or an ordinal number modifying a noun, to indicate that the noun refers to a single item. 

prep
  • For each; per. 

whatever

adv
  • In what way; to what extent. 

  • At all; in any way; whatsoever. 

det
  • What ever; emphatic form of 'what'. 

  • Regardless of the ... that; for any ... that. 

  • Any ... that; of no matter what type or kind that. 

  • Any; of no matter what type or kind. 

adj
  • Unexceptional or unimportant; blah. 

noun
  • Something whose exact kind or nature is unimportant; a thingy. 

pron
  • Anything; thing(s) of unspecified kind, or no matter what kind; sometimes used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options. 

  • Anything that; all that. 

  • Regardless of anything that. 

  • What ever; emphasised form of 'what', used to ask which thing, event, circumstance, etc. 

intj
  • A holophrastic expression used to dismiss something that the speaker doesn't care about, doesn't think important, or doesn't want to consider or discuss any further. 

How often have the words the and whatever occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )